September 16, 2026 a thought for today Better to suffer for the truth than be rewarded for a lie. Swedish Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “in the laundry”. This the beginning of my weeks worth of laundry. I have gotten away from a laundry “basket”. I use this net bag instead. I can hide it in my closet. 

The next assignment was “my choice” and it is one of my series of “sepia”. This is another of my series that was taken of one of my neighbor’s homes. 

The last upload was “shadow”. As I was making the bed, I happened to see this shadow from the early morning sun on my bedside table. Every now and then I see something unexpected and grab my camera. 

Life today. Yesterday Rebecca took me to see Jefferson’s art exhibit  in the Short North art district. He has a great display. I got several photos of his work so that I can print some and share with the friends at church. 

This is one of those days where I have lost control of my timing. The bulletin has been done so that was no problem but I had some of the side things I do when I am getting ready for the printing. I have the envelopes to print and stamp. I also put together activity sheets for all of my great grandchildren. I get those together to mail at the same time at the bulletins, it saves me a separate trip to the post office. In getting ready for the visit to the church for the printing I also get some of the placards for the gallery wall photos ready to attach while I am at the church. I do them a few at a time until I get all thirty-five photos done.  

I did a little work on the Christmas calendars. I also took time to get the dishes done. I have been doing some bits of down sizing each day. At my age a little a day is about all I can handle. 

Lowell stopped to fix the side mirror on my car. It looks as good as new. He also took a look at the humidifier. It needed some further adjustments. 

The weather is great today, another early autumn day, maybe a bit more on the warm side than usual for September but comfortable.  

I just took a break to get the meatloaf made and a potato in to bake. 

The word to ponder today is direct. The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Reason should direct and appetite obey. Cicero. The wisest men follow their own direction. Euripides. The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life. Plato. Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate. Sun-tzu. Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed. Seneca. The number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes. Denis Diderot. Go Confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. Henry David Thoreau. If we don't change our direction we're likely to end up where we're headed. Chinese Proverb. As the flectcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts. Buddha. The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing. Thomas Aquinas. 

Article summary. I have often wondered about why a persons’ mood is what is when waking from a night’s sleep. I think it may relate to this “day dreaming, mind wandering and rumination” in some form or manner. The chemistry and other physical happening as including night dreams must have an affect on a mood also. The title is Daydreams, mind wandering and rumination: What you think about can affect your feelings and mood. Julia Kam, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary. Caitlin Mills,  Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota. Jessica Andrews-Hanna. Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona. At theconversation.com. It opened by pointing out that we all have thoughts “pass through our mind” on and off all day long. We may have a mindful glimpse of a vacation, a memorable conversation, some news item any and all of these “have wide-ranging impacts on how we function”. These authors and others have done research and found that many of these thoughts are tied to “emotional well-being”. They feel that in searching the subject they want to gather an understanding of how these memory patterns “arise” feeling that that will help find a way to handle or prevent any negative situations that develop from the remembering. They feel this will, in the long run, manage stress and mental health. This group of scientists and authors studied students during a week with some surveys about everyday types of thoughts they had and how they felt. One thing they found was that some said they had a worse mood when they had “off-task” thoughts, they called this “mind-wandering”. They also found that if the students said they felt a better mood when they had been about to control their thoughts, and when the thoughts “flowed freely” from one to another. To further their studies they wanted to discover is the “content of people’s thoughts matter for their mood”. They found that “off-task” thoughts made the mood worse seemingly because the person was unable to control them and they were on negative things. Better moods were found to come when thoughts were more positive and moved easily from one thing to another. In trying to find ways to control this pattern they suggest to try finding a “mindful state of awareness” where you are not “judging yourself” along with “acknowledging that negative thoughts come and go”. Next, try to build thoughts that are positive. It should also be noted that “how you feel may also impact what you think about”. 

I didn’t do the meat loaf and baked potato the other day when I had planned to.  I got to busy just before dinner. I think I will retry today.

Photos in my life today

My first upload today is another “my choice”. This is another in my series of series of “sepia”. I tried something a little different here. I change an image I had with a black background and a colored subject matte to sepia. I like the affect.   

My second challenge today was “outside today”. I heard the neighbor outside mowing his lawn and grabbed the camera for this shot. 

My last assignment is “bathtub”. There’s not much you can do to make the
image standout when it is a bathtub....so here it is, plain and simple.

Joy 

this bonus image is one that is hung on the photo gallery wall at church. This is on the attached placard: Abstract Shapes and Colors-visual meditation on the convergence of humanity, divinity, and the unfolding promises, using an image to translate spiritual realities into meaningful textures, blues, living water; green, new beginning and hope; tan/beige, humanity; splashes of red, sacrifice and redemption, hues of tan and beige establish a foundation of divine peace, providing a quiet, anchoring balance.

want to shop? Visit: fineartamerica.com search for joy rector click on “view shop”  and redbubble.com search for jarector (and take a look at flickr.com search for rectorjoyce)